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Newsgroups: alt.recovery.religion,alt.atheism,alt.politics.libertarian,osu.opinion.libertarian,talk.politics.libertarian,talk.philosophy.humanism
Subject: Re: The Guru Papers
From: jahnu@wineasy.se (Jahnu das)
Date: Mon, 01 Apr 1996 05:28:34 GMT

igoddard@mail.erols.com (Ian Goddard) wrote:

>              THE GURU PAPERS

>        Masks of Authoritarian Power
>        by Joel Kramer and Diana Alstad

>        from a review by Sharon Presley

>IAN: THE GURU: Renounce worldly wealth (give it me) renounce family (join
>my flock) renounce ego (worship me instead) think not of yourself (think of
>me) only this can lead to enlightenment (only this will fatten up my bank
>account). 

Gee, are you sure this is about gurus and not a desription of the Walt
Disney empire?

>        The authors examine how self-sacrifice is used as a tool of 
>        control in fundamentalist religions....Many people are conditioned,

So do you think you are not conditioned by modern consumerism?
Do you think you are not conditioned by the modern hedonistic
lifestyle?

>        say Kramer and Alstad, to look "for saviors, or holders of wisdom, 
>        as the way to lead humanity (or oneself) to salvation or
>survival...
>        Behind much of the appeal of such authority is the essentially 
>        childish hope of external and magical answers to the existential
>        problems and fears around living and dying."

Magical answers? Oh you mean answers like, the Singularity ( The point
that went poof ), the Big Bang, Evolution, life from matter etc.?
Magic like that?

>IAN: I have always been repulsed by the authoritarian hierarchical
>structure of virtually all spiritual organizations. 

How about the authoritarian hierarchical structure of the power of
money? Or the authoritarian hierarchical structure of Hollywood? Or
the authoritarian hierarchical structure of Pentagon? Ever reflect on
that? 

>The goal is to
>subordinate the will of the individual to that of the collective embodied
>in the guru icon. 

Gee, sounds more like modern society. Bow down in awe to the values of
modern society, right?

>Perhaps the most astounding expression of this parasitic
>phenomena I have ever seen is "guru meditation" where the disciple
>meditates on a photograph of the guru to "transcend their own ego." 

So what? Whom do you meditate on? A pinup girl, Donald Duck, Mike
Tyson, your wife, the president, Jesus, Clive Barker, Pentagon, some
doped out rock star, the list goes on and on? What makes your
meditation so superior?

/Jahnu